Television and films provide sources of information and entertainment to many viewers. Content providers offer a large number of channels that allow viewers to select from a wide variety of programming. Television and film content can be delivered through a variety of systems, such as broadcast networks, cable networks, and data networks. Cable networks and data networks allow providers to offer more channels than broadcast networks, because they are less dependent upon broadcast frequencies.
Transmitting video content to viewers over data networks can require a large volume of complex routing hardware. Many high-speed switches use full mesh switching architectures, meaning that any port on any line card can be switched to any other port on any other line card. The number of high-speed links, as well as the queuing and memory hardware necessary to implement such switches can be vast and expensive, particularly when serving a metropolitan area or other market. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of routing data packets.